People pour out of suspected human smuggling truck

Claudine Zap

Claudine Zap

Yahoo! News•July 12, 2013

People pour out of suspected human smuggling truck

Here is a shocking sight: A sheriff’s department car approaches a suspected immigrant smuggling truck in Jim Wells County, Texas. As it approaches, the truck suddenly opens in the back, and about 50 people emerge from the small-sized vehicle, running away.

“That’s a lot of people,” Chief Deputy Rodrigo Ramon told the Associated Press. “If you put the math to it, at $4,500 a person, which is the average going rate. multiply that by just 45, that’s a lot of money.”

This is not the first incident like this. Near Encino, Calif., border patrol agents pulled over a Chevy Silverado. Once the truck stopped, several people took off running, according to local station KRIS.

The driver then reversed his truck into the agent’s, before bailing out himself. The agents apprehended several Guatemala citizens.

The station also reports that this happened to another vehicle suspected of human smuggling that rammed a parked agent’s car, although the driver and one passenger were arrested.

Despite efforts to shore up the U.S.–Mexico border, including 650 miles of fence, 21,000 Border Patrol agents and $18 billion spent on enforcement in 2012, a recent report states that only about half of all unauthorized immigrants crossing the border from Mexico are caught.